Alright, so, now for the gory details. I decided I was sick of seeing scratches on the top of my Titleist 904f, so I starting trying to find who would repaint it for me. As I looked around, the light bulb went off, as if to say “hey, why don’t you do it yourself? It would be cheaper, and you could customize it!” So, I tried to found the information online, and the GolfWRX forum listed above is what I came across.

However, I wasn’t confident enough to try it off the bat on my precious 904f. Instead, I decided to pull an old club out of the basement for this experiment. The club is a Cobra (actually, King Cobra, to show you how old it is) 3-wood that I got at a junior clinic at the BellSouth Classic (again, to show you how old it is) in Atlanta when I was probably 12 or 13 years old. Billy Andrade ran the clinic, and they gave away clubs after it–kind of a cool promotion, until you realized that the clubs they gave away were just the defective ladies’ and seniors’ models. Oh well. It had been in the basement a long time, and needed some TLC. Here’s a few “BEFORE” shots.

First, I sanded down the old paint job.

Then, I masked the head to prevent paint from going on the face and sole. This was probably the most difficult part, because you really need to cut the edges with a razor blade to get it clean, and you need to either (1) have a really good hand or (2) take your time….or both. Note, however, how far up the shaft the masking tape goes. This is so that I won’t get any paint on the shaft during the process.

The next step was to put the base coat on. Automotive paint works in a 3-step procedure: (1) Primer, (2) Color, (3) Clear Coat. The DupliColor Mirage includes all three steps in one package, which I liked. I put on 3 coats of primer.

Between each paint coat–whether it be primer, color, or clear coat–you need to wait about 15 minutes for the current paint to dry a little. Make sure to use a tack cloth (shown below) between each coat to get dust out. Dust will not only make your finish ugly, it could also weaken the integrity of the paint you put on.

Next was to put on the actual paint. The Mirage effect gets better with more coats of paint. However, since this is only a test club, I decided not to waste my paint. I put on only 3 coats of the Mirage paint. I would probably go with 5 on the 904f, but I wanted to get this post up with the photos of this old club.

The First Coat:

A Few Coats Later:

Finally, the clear coat goes on. I put on 4 coats of clear coat. The reason for this is that I will sand the finish with finishing wet sandpaper.

The clear coat goes on with an “orange peel” like effect. It looks pretty neat, but I wanted a nice polished look. So, I added extra coats that I will wet sand with soapy water and finishing wet sandpaper. About 2 coats will come off. As stated in the GolfWRX instructions, “[t]he sanding will be rough at first and begin to slide easily. Thats when you got it even.”

Note, it is important to wait AT LEAST 24 hours before performing the wet sand. The reason for this is that the clear coat needs to harden–NOT “DRY,” HARDEN–before you can polish it.

When I first sanded with 1000 grit, the finish looked TERRIBLE. It become cloudy and ugly. I purchased Meguiar’s Show Car Glaze and polished it using an old T-shirt as a rag, and the finish came out nice–more like a satin finish. I decided I wanted it to be mirror shine, so I bought 2000 grit, gave it a good wet sanding, and then polished with Meguiar’s again.

After removing the masking tape and exposing the club the result was breathtaking.

This was the Meguiar’s product I used.

The masking job wasn’t great, but a little more time on the edges with a razor blade and I could probably clean it up.

Still, from the top, it looks great–and will look great at address.

Before using, I will wait a week or two to ensure the finish has fully cured. Then, we’ll take it out and see how it hits. Still, it was a lot of fun figuring out how to do this right.